Good Game: Super Mario World 2 Yoshi’s Island (SNES)

Today it’s Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island a 1996 platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). A prequel to the Mario franchise, the game casts players as Yoshi as he escorts Baby Mario through nearly 50 levels in order to reunite him with his brother Luigi, who had been kidnapped by Baby Bowser’s minions.

Yoshi runs and jumps to reach the end of the level while solving puzzles and collecting items. In a style new to the series, the game has a hand-drawn aesthetic and is the first to have Yoshi as its main character. The game introduces his signature abilities to flutter jump, produce eggs from swallowed enemies, and transform into vehicles.

The game’s hand-drawn aesthetic descends from producer and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto’s distaste for the computer pre-rendered graphics of the game’s contemporary Donkey Kong Country. Some of its special effects were powered by a new Super FX2 microchip. The game was rereleased for the Game Boy Advance with few changes in 2002 under the title Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3. Nintendo later released this version via the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Virtual Console.

Yoshi’s Island received positive reviews, and sold over four million copies. Both contemporaneous and retrospective reviewers offered lavish praise for the game’s aesthetics, sound, level design, and gameplay, and posited Yoshi’s Island as a masterpiece and the best platformer of all time. The game brought newfound renown to both Yoshi as a character and Miyamoto’s artistic and directorial career. The distinct art style and Yoshi’s signature characteristics established in Yoshi’s Island would carry throughout a series of cameos, spin-offs, and sequels, including the 1997 Yoshi’s Story, 2006 Yoshi’s Island DS, 2014 Yoshi’s New Island, and 2015 Yoshi’s Woolly World. Yoshi’s Island was the last 2D Super Mario game released for home consoles until the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii 14 years later.

Watch the video I made below showing about the first 20 minutes of the game.